The Fall
by Trahern
Summary: When civilisation falls, the supervillains rise to take over what's left of the world... and Kim Possible isn't sure she should stop them. Kigo. Takes place during season four.
1. Chapter 1

The beginning of the end was not subtle.

Over thirty thousand restaurants giving out free toys with their meals? That's a lot of toys. And each restaurant also kept a contingent on site for when they grew into giant heavily-armed cybertronic robots for the purpose of taking over the world. When the time came, they filled the sky of most cities, in most nations. Only those who directly opposed American capitalism got off lightly. The rest...

The robot army had only been active for a few minutes and casualties had been light, but much structural damage had been done. In the grip of a worldwide economic recession - again, caused by American greed - civilisation was left struggling to cope in the aftermath.

Not that civilisation couldn't hold on by the skin of its teeth. If the Middleton Space Center could get funding for the Kepler II after the original was turned into a hypersonic rocket car, things couldn't have been that bad... as long as they cannibalized the original for parts. So it wasn't the end of the world.

But then Mother Nature chimed in.

* * *

><p>"Whoop whoop! Overreaction alert!" Kim told Ron as he expounded on the latest subject of Barkin-related irritation.<p>

Her boyfriend was not impressed. "Which side are you on, Kim?"

"Whoop whoop!" she repeated with a smile before taking a bite of her salad.

"You know, I'll prove you and Barkin wrong. Not only will I keep eating at Bueno Nacho, I'll eat nothing but Bueno Nacho from now on!" And with that overhyped declaration, he was off to the counter to order more of the food that only had one virtue: it was better than Cow and Chow.

_Okay, that might be a narrow viewpoint,_ Kim silently considered, _but mystery meat is in a whole other class._ "What about you, Rufus?" she asked the hairless rodent as he chewed on a tortilla chip. "I know you're big on cheese, but that can't be all you eat, right? How about a baby tomato?" She offered him one from her salad.

The molerat finished his chip quickly before taking the tomato from Kim and sniffing it carefully. It seemed to leave him puzzled. Kim was about to offer him encouragement when he suddenly dipped the vegetable in cheese and swallowed it whole, then smiled enthusiastically. "Better than nothing, I suppose," Kim conceded as she watched him dive back into the tortillas.

She knew there was little to no chance of dissuading Ron from his latest decision, but she didn't want a fat boyfriend. _Because it would be unhealthy for him,_ she quickly added to the thought, _not just embarrassing for me._ Then another thought occured._ What if he's fat when we decide to... go all the way? It'll be awkward enough without that! _She briefly contemplated refusing to go through with it until he got back in shape, but it's not like either of them knew what they were missing. Maybe she should have her way with him now and then refuse to do it again until...

Ron returned to their table with another tray. It was the same meal as before, only grande sized. "So you're going to begin your new diet by eating two lunches?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, to make up for breakfast," he told her as if it should have been obvious. Kim sighed as she watched him dig in. At least Rufus would get to eat the rest of the smaller meal...

But Rufus wasn't eating. The molerat was standing upright, whiskers twitching furiously. Then he leapt out of the tortillas, hopped off the table and into Ron's pocket.

Kim caught movement from the corner of her eye when Rufus abandoned his lunch. She looked out the window and saw what was probably every bird in the area taking to the sky.

"Hey, little buddy," Ron said around a mouthful of processed cheese, "What's-"

He was interrupted by a tremendous thump as their surroundings began to shake violently. The volume of the accompanying rumble wasn't quite enough to drown the sound of rattling fixtures and shattering glass.

"Waaah! Is Bueno Nacho under attack _again_? Why don't they ever come after us at school instead!"

"Earthquake, Ron!" Kim corrected him before raising her voice. "Everyone outside!"

The other patrons (along with Ned and his staff) were as quick to respond as the ground allowed. It's behaviour was somewhere between vibrating and lurching, so it took some attention to remain on one's feet. Soon enough, however, everyone was standing, sitting or crouching on the street outside. Ron almost cried as the hat-shaped roof of Bueno Nacho split in two and collapsed into the restaurant.

The entire event lasted only a minute or two, but it felt like forever. The end was punctuated by a short series of further thumps that seemed to make the ground heave before things finally settled down. A different rumbling, off in the distance, drew Kim's attention to Mount Middleton. The snow that capped the peak was making its way down the mountainside. There was nothing she could do about that, so she looked around and saw the others had suffered nothing more than bumps and scratches.

It took Wade a minute to answer her kimmunicator signal. His equipment had been displaced and there was a large crack down the wall behind him. "Kim! You okay?"

"Ron and I are fine, what about you? Are you safe in there?"

"I think if the house was going to collapse on us, it would have done it by now," the genius replied.

"What about the hospital and the space center? And the house, I think the tweebs are home right now."

"Just a moment..." Wade adjusted a few items and started tapping at his keyboard. "Both are running on internal power, so they musn't be too badly off. Your parents should be fine. Your house... hold on, I'll need to hack into satellite imaging... oh, uh... it looks like the stilts under the living room didn't hold up. They were probably experimenting in the garage, though..."

"I'll head home first," Kim decided, heading to her car with Ron close behind. He was already hitting the speed dial on his phone to check on his own family. "What about _your_ parents, Wade?"

"Mom's here, she's on the phone with dad right now. They're good."

The two teens got into the car. "Wade, can you use the satellite to check on the ski resort on Mt. Middleton? I know there's less snow at this time of year, and there aren't many people up there, but..."

"Tracking over now." A pause as Wade waited for the orbiting hardware to follow his commands. His face then fell. "I can't see the building at all. Hopefully it's just buried... lucky this didn't happen during a winter holiday."

"Phone's busy," Ron muttered from the passenger seat. "Probably mom and dad talking."

"Good. Do me a favour and answer mine if anyone calls?" Kim handed Ron her phone before she started driving. "Wade, how _did_ this happen? I mean, earthquakes in the midwest..."

"No idea yet, Kim. As soon as I know anything, I'll contact you."

"Please and thank you," Kim managed to get out before Wade cut the communication.

They were amost at the Possible residence when Ron answered Kim's phone. "Hi, Mister Doctor P... she's fine, she's driving right now... heading home to check on the twins. Is... you did? She is? Oh, that's... uh, too bad. Yeah, I imagine it's about to get a lot busier. What about the space center... huh, cool. Yeah, I'll tell her. She'll call you back as soon as we find them. Okay." He hung up.

"Well?"

"Both fine. Your mom was in the middle of an operation, she lost the patient when the quake hit. She's going to stay at the hospital and help. Your dad's planning to send up everything they can so it'll be safe from any aftershocks, so I guess they're not doing too badly there either. And he loves you, of course."

Kim sighed with relief, an action that soon repeated itself as they pulled up to the curb in front of her house. Her brothers were on the front lawn, crouching over what turned out to be an A3 sized pad of graph paper. "Are you two okay?" she asked as she ran up to them.

They both looked over their shoulders at her as if nothing had happened. "We're fine," Jim told her.

"The phone's out," Tim added, "So we've been designing a new living room while waiting for someone to show up!"

"How's mom and dad?" Jim finished.

"They're okay too." Kim got her phone back from her boyfriend, called dad and let him talk to the tweebs. "You'd better head over to your place, Ron."

"What're you gonna do?" he asked.

"Fly up to Mt. Middleton and rescue anyone left at the resort."

"What? What about me?"

Kim placed a hand on his shoulder. "You should be with your family right now, Ron. And I'm gonna be with mine." She turned to the tweebs. "Did you two ever rebuild that snoman-melting machine?"

"The ionic heat particle beam?"

"Sure! It's in the garage."

"Go get it," she told them.

* * *

><p>Wade was watching the newsfeeds on another screen when he noticed the satellite image began to shift. A discrete inquiry showed the government was controlling it, which was fair since it was theirs to begin with. Someone was probably wondering why it had been focused on Mt. Middleton, but right now the image was zooming out and sliding west.<p>

It was still zooming when it reached the coast. "That's not right," Wade muttered, and started pinging networks located across the Californian coast. Only Crescent City responded.

He looked back at the satellite image, and his jaw went slack until he could summon the presence of mind to call for his mother, who quickly popped her head in.

"Wade? What's wrong honey?" She watched him point weakly at one of his screens, and she walked over to take a closer look. "What am I looking at?" she asked.

"C-California..."

"It doesn't _look_ like California."

"I know."

It took a moment to sink in. "You mean... oh my. Oh my goodness."

"Kim," Wade murmured, "Gotta tell Kim." Her car was in flight mode. He'd call the car.

* * *

><p>"And remember to watch where you use that thing," Kim ordered the tweebs. "I don't want you two melting too much off the side and bringing the rest down on top of us."<p>

"We get it, geez!"

"We know what to do!"

Wade's haggard face appeared on the dashboard screen. "Kim... the earthquake..."

"Did you find the cause?" The redhead was busy watching where she was going, but the twins noticed his expression.

"You... should see this." Wade's face was replaced by the satellite image.

"Woah," the twins chorused.

Kim spared a glance, then froze. She had to watch where she was going, especially when heading towards a mountain, especially at this speed. She had to...

She took another look. "...Wade?"

Kim heard the teen genius gulp before speaking. "I think the entire west coast just fell into the ocean."


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take long for the rest of the nation, and the world, to notice the sudden disappearance of various points west of the San Andreas fault, one way or another. Someone somewhere made the decision to release the satellite image of the redefined west coast of America, and warn their neighbours around the Pacific.

Two people stood side by side in front of a large screen, watching the news since the initial broadcast of the story, until one of them could no longer take the growing tension from the other.

"I'm giving you the rest of the day off, Shego," Dr. Drakken declared.

The villainess looked at him sideways. "What? Why?"

"Well... so you can fly to Go City and-"

"Go City's _gone_, Doc."

"Still..."

Shego jerked her chin in the screen's direction. "Dr. D, the entire city took a swan dive into the ocean. Even I wouldn't survive something that big. Why assume my idiot brothers did?"

"Why assume they wouldn't?" Drakken countered.

Shego crossed her arms with a huff. "They didn't."

"Are you sure," the mad scientist pressed.

"Yes."

"Certain."

"Yeees..."

"Positive."

"Yes!"

"_No_ doubts _what_soever."

The villainess turned on Drakken with a growl. "Why do you keep harping on about this?"

"Family, Shego. _Family_." The mad scientist remained silent a moment, then started walking in the direction of his personal quarters. "Do what you want with your afternoon. I have the sudden urge to give my mother a call."

It took several minutes after his departure for Shego to curse under her breath and stalk off in the direction of the hanger. "It's not like I ever wanted them _dead_, anyway..." she rationalized.

Five minutes later, a green and black jet was streaking westward. It would take less than two hours to hit California. Mountains and deserts slid beneath her as Shego rocketed across Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The damage caused by the earthquake became more and more apparent as she travelled. The desert east of Carson looked like a giant pane of glass that had shattered without falling to pieces, and what signs of civilisation remained in the city itself were surrounded by rubble, islands standing in a sea of devestation.

By the time Shego hit California, it was obvious that no amount of fortification against earthquakes would have been enough against _this_.

The Eldorado forest had been flattened. The land beyond was so ripped and torn, Route 50 was indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain.

Sacramento had been pulverized. Nothing remained above water after the ocean flooded the valley... what was left of the valley. For all intents and purposes, the jet was hovering over the new Californian coastline.

Shego's resolve wavered. There was nothing in the direction of San Francisco but water and dorsal fins. The presence of sharks made her realise the sun in her eyes was not responsible for the colour of the water.

Go City would be no different.

The villainess turned the jet north and sped up the new coast. It was so unfamiliar, she had to rely on the computer to tell her where the city used to be.

It was exactly as she had expected. She'd need a submersible to find anything of her hometown, and none of it would be even remotely recognisable. But at least now she had seen it with her own eyes. _Now_ she had no doubt whatsoever.

Numb was the only word for what she was feeling. In some corner of her mind, Shego could see herself laughing at the fact that the mighty Hego had become shark food, assuming they could stomach him in the first place. Mego would probably shrink right down as a final insult, denying them a decently-sized meal. The twins... the twins. Thinking of them did make her feel something, but it seemed to be far in the distance. Or was she distancing herself from her emotions? "Probably," she muttered to herself as she stared down into the choppy ocean waters. The twins though... she could imagine a chain of Wegos growing westward, trying to outrun the destruction. If that would even work. Perhaps they had finally learned whether or not it mattered if the original pair survived, or if any copy would do at the end of the day.

Though she suspected it to be futile, she made a pass along the nearest stretch of the coastline, looking for signs of life. Her suspicions were borne out. Nothing moved. But for some reason, she felt better for doing it.

Shego's return flight was prolonged by more aircraft approaching from the east. She dropped below radar and moved to avoid them out of habit, not really caring who they were or what they were doing. There was a gap between the approaching craft that would keep them beyond visual range.

The green girl was operating mechanically, not really thinking about anything, until the onboard computer started fizzing and sparking.

* * *

><p>Kim and her siblings had managed to tunnel their way to the ski resort, though the first aftershock buried them again while they were inside. There were few employees within, but they had told the teen hero that a maintainance crew had been out doing work on the ski lifts. Kim didn't like their chances, and she definitely didn't like risking the tweebs coming upon dead bodies, so she had Wade relay the information to the appropriate rescue service (that one with dogs who could find the missing men faster than Kim ever would) before taking the boys home. She felt guilty, not trying herself, but getting the family together seemed more important.<p>

Their mother was waiting outside the house, and hugged each of them in turn. "They were saying on the radio that the earthquake was centered on the west coast," she told them with a tired, sad voice.

"Everything west of the San Andreas fault is gone," one of the twins elaborated in a subdued voice.

"Where's dad?" Kim asked.

"Inside." Ann tried to smile. "He thinks with all the rebuilding after the boys' experiments and Drakken's toy attack, the house should be structurally sound; but he wants to make sure..." Another aftershock rumbled through the ground, but it was weak and only lasted a moment. Ann took a deep breath once it passed. "I can't believe we're feeling it so far east, but... if the west coast... _broke off_..."

"How were things in the hospital?" Kim interrupted her train of thought.

"Oh... a mess. A few casualties, more injuries... and that was before people started coming in. I guess we should count ourselves lucky..."

Her husband chose that moment to come outside, and another round of hugs ensued. "There's no power, but most of the house is intact," he assured them. "Since it's nearly dinnertime, I suggest we start by raiding the fridge before anything spoils."

Ann tried her best to make things as normal as possible, but the candlelit dinner comprised mostly of cereal, sandwiches and salad washed down with orange juice. She took heart in the fact that her children still had healthy appetites. Nana called James' cellphone during the meal; apparently it had taken her that long to get through with all the communications traffic that was going on since the earthquake. It left everyone wondering how many people were trying to reach people who would never answer.

The twins borrowed the battery from their dad's car and, with the help of a tinkered transformer, they managed to get the small television in the kitchen working in time for the nine o'clock news. The reporter behind the desk was having difficulty maintaining her composure, only succeeding thanks to ingrained habit more than anything.

"...The long-expected 'Big One' hit the San Andreas fault in California at about noon, Pacific Time. It was felt across half of North America and is the first magnitude ten-plus earthquake on the Richter scale in recorded history. The damage... has been catastrophic." A graphic of the western states came on screen, red dots identifying major cities along the original coast of California. They remained as the image switched to after the earthquake. "Go City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Mexico's Baja peninsula... are completely... have been completely destroyed. Over seventeen million lives, lost in moments. The number of casualties inland is unknown."

Three orange dots joined the four red ones, hovering off the new coastline. Two yellow ones also appeared inland. "Of all the pollution concerns due to seaside industry, the most alarming is radiation. The nuclear power stations at Humboldt Bay, Diablo Canyon and San Onofre are now in the water. The Homboldt Bay station was inactive but still contained radioactive materials. Scientists fear the worst for the ocean's ecology and its impact on the entire Pacific rim.

"Further inland, the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Alameda county, a nuclear research facility that fabricates radioactive source materials for medical and industrial purposes, took severe damage. The reactor there was small in comparison to those lost on the coast, but the area has been declared off-limits until the situation can be determined. The Palo Verde Nuclear Station in Arizona, the largest nuclear facility in America, has also suffered damage. We have yet to hear of any containment failures from there. There are also reports of extensive damage in Las Vegas and Phoenix... again, the number of casualties are unknown at this time.

"Mexican news broadcasts suggest the tidal wave from the collapse of the Baja peninsula has devestasted the northwestern coast of that country," the reporter continued as the graphic slid south to focus on the peninsula's former location, before expanding to show the entire Pacific. "The Canadian and Alaskan coasts suffered less damage, but the Californian tsunami is due to hit the Russian coast in... in four hours, Japan in six; the Philippenes, Papa New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand in nine... these are approximate numbers, since the speed of the tsunami has yet to be determined. Emergency actions are already underway in all countries."

The image returned to the news anchor. "With the ongoing evacuation of Tokyo, the global economy has ground to a halt. Economic leaders in New York and London are discussing the possibility of suspending all operations until the crisis is over. At home, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is attempting to organise search and rescue operations across... across what remains of California. Neighbouring states have been advised to request federal aid only for critical emergencies until more resources can be spared. In a televised address, the president has asked for people to remain calm and be assured that everything that can be done, will be done. His remarks were met with scepticism following the government's lacklustre response to hurricane Katrina."

The reporter stared a moment, then looked away from the camera. "That's all there is?" Apparently it was, for she nodded with resignation and took a deep breath. "This... is the greatest disaster of our lifetime. Of our civilisation. In the days of the Roman Empire, the destruction of Pompeii gave birth to the word 'volcano.' I doubt anyone can tell what effect this event will have on our own future-"

Ann turned the television off. James rushed across the room to wrap his arms around her and she buried her face in his shoulder before she began to weep. The children shared a look, then converged on their parents to join the embrace.

For several minutes, there were no dry eyes in the Possible residence.

"Oh," Ann breathed after she had cried herself out, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't expect any of us will be getting much sleep tonight," James replied softly, "But we should at least try to get some rest. What say we all bunk up in the master bedroom?" Ann nodded, and the boys murmured their assent.

"I'll just go get my duvet from upstairs," Kim decided. "It's safe enough, right?"

"Don't stay up there too long," her father suggested, "Better safe the sorry, until we have time for a proper structural analysis."

As soon as she was alone in her room, the teenager activated her kimmunicator.

"Hey, Kim," Wade greeted her. his voice lacked its usual enthusiasm.

"Wade... how're you doing?"

"Surviving. You?"

"The same. Mom..."

"Is she okay?" Wade asked when he saw Kim choke up.

Kim nodded, clearing her throat. "Upset, but yeah. Any hits on the website?"

"There's been a surge of 'em. Most are requests for you to find people who they think were... I put up a notice saying you'd be spending time with your family for now."

"Thanks. Maybe tomorrow... I dunno..."

"Whenever," the genius said firmly.

"Yeah, Wade. Night."

"Night, Kim."

The heroine sat pandaroo on her desk while she folded up her duvet. She'd take the cuddle buddy downstairs too. She doubted even the tweebs would poke fun at her for it tonight.

She heard the jet before she saw it. She looked out her window to find it using the street as a landing strip... before pulling up in their driveway. Even if Kim didn't recognise it from the attempted kidnapping in Tokyo, the colour scheme made the identity of the pilot obvious.

While her rational mind told her to get ready for a fight, she felt a great swell of sympathy for the villainess. The tweebs annoyed the hell out of her on a good day, but she knew how she would feel if they were suddenly... gone.

Kim returned downstairs to find the family had gathered just outside the front door. They were watching as the jet's canopy opened and Shego pulled off her helmet, eyeing them warily before unbuckling.

"I think she lost all her brothers today," Kim whispered to the others. "I'll go see what she wants." She handed her duvet and stuffed toy to her father before walking over to the driveway.

The green girl was climbing down the side of the aircraft. No leaps or somersaults out of the cockpit; Kim took that as an indicator of Shego's mood. Reaching the ground, the older girl turned and it was obvious from her expression that she wasn't doing well. It even took her a moment to realise the redhead was coming to greet her.

"Stay back, Kimmie," she warned the teenager with a tight voice.

"It's okay," Kim told her, still coming.

"No, it's..."

Kim didn't even pause when she reached the villainess. She slipped her arms around Shego's shoulders and hugged.

"You better let me go, princess. I can't hold it in any longer..."

"Not on your life, Shego," the heroine assured her.

"Have it your way," Shego croaked before vomiting down Kim's back.

* * *

><p>Ann wore medical gloves as she held Shego's hair while the green girl periodically heaved more of her stomach's contents into the toilet bowl. The brain surgeon had to admit to herself that she was impressed by the sheer amount of the stuff in her hands. In the candlelight, she could just make out its green tinge. Focusing on that curiosity kept her attention diverted from what the owner of the hair was doing. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but her mind had been strained enough lately.<p>

"Did you tell them?" Shego managed to gasp during a respite.

"Not to touch your plane because of the radiation, yes. How's your head?"

"Aches. And it's... foggy. Actually, I think that's due to... other stuff."

Ann freed a hand and pressed it against Shego's forehead. "No fever, as far as I can tell. Was it a brief exposure?"

"Musta been, the speed I was going." Shego paused. "I don't think I've anything left."

"There may be some dry heaving," the doctor told her. "but go ahead and flush. You should shower and wash your hair thoroughly. We have no electricity at the moment, so it will be cold, I'm afraid."

"No tricks?" the villainess asked. It sounded like she was trying to add a dangerous edge to her voice, and failing miserably.

"Not today," Ann murmured, patting her on the shoulder before leaving the bathroom. Shego could hear Kimmie's voice after the door closed, and appreciated Ann telling her to leave her be for now. This wasn't something she wanted her goody two-shoes archfoe to see.

She emerged an hour later, wrapped in a towel, her hair damp and tangled but as clean as she could get it. She had used her glow to heat the pipe feeding the shower, so it hadn't been as cold as Ann had feared. Shego thought she could hear movement in the back of the house, and headed to where she vaguely recalled the kitchen was located. It was lit only by a candle at the window and the glow of the television, which Kim was watching though it was muted. Images of California before the sun had set were a common theme on the screen.

"Where's the fam?" Shego asked.

"Bed," Kim responded, sliding a glass of water along the counter to the villainess. "Can you eat anything? You probably should."

"Water's fine for now," Shego said, taking the glass and sipping. It was room temperature. _Probably for the best,_ Shego supposed. "Noone touched the jet, did they?"

"Thanks to my brothers, it's not even the first radioactive object we've ever had around here. Dad took some readings and the tweebs put some kind of special tarp over it. It'll be fine for now. We can decontaminate it in the morning. Dad says the onboard electronics might be salvagable."

"That'd be good, since I can't find the damn lair without 'em," Shego muttered.

"Your outfit?"

"Incinerated it."

Kim nodded, agreeing with the precaution. "You can borrow some of my-"

"Uh, thanks Kimmie," Shego interrupted, "But I'll borrow your mother's clothes. I doubt yours'll fit."

"...Kay."

Shego glanced at the girl before adding, "Sorry 'bout... y'know..."

"No big."

They watched the television in silence for a couple of minutes as images of the lost cities were displayed.

"I'm sorry about your brothers," Kim finally whispered.

Shego did not respond.


	3. Chapter 3

After the emotional exhaustion of the day, everyone got more sleep than expected. In the morning, Ann was woken by a call from the hospital, asking how soon she would be available for work. After that brief conversation, she noticed her husband and sons were still sound asleep, but her daughter was nowhere to be seen. Then she remembered Shego and began to worry.

She discovered two things when she stepped into the kitchen. The first was that power had been restored, according to the blinking timer on the oven and the hum of the fridge. The second was Kim and Shego asleep in the breakfast nook. If the plates were any indication, they'd shared a midnight snack - the doctor was pleased to see Shego's appetite had survived her sickness - but the girls were now crammed together in the corner, and Kim was hugging Shego in her sleep.

Ann had seen the little smile on her daughter's face many times before; apparently the villainess was a decent substitute for Pandaroo. _Must be the hair,_ the doctor surmised, _since it can't be the towel..._ which must have come loose during the night and was barely covering anything.

Ann reached under the table to snag a corner of the towel and gently draped it over the green girl, wondering if she would be more upset about her own nudity or the fact that she would wake in her rival's embrace. Kim's arms were under the towel too, but Ann knew better than to try and move them while she slept. Perhaps the girls had had some kind of heart-to-heart last night. Or not. Either way, Ann doubted she should be right there with them when they woke, so once the towel was more or less in place, she retreated and started the coffee machine before browsing breakfast options.

The smell of coffee woke the girls, but Kim was the first to become aware of the situation, if her surprised "Shego!" was anything to go by. Ann made sure to keep her back turned, keeping herself busy with the investigation of the fridge's contents. _Not going to trust the milk after this much time..._

"Whuzza... wha' the hell. You gropin' me in my sleep, Kimmie?"

"Sorry! I'm not, I swear... I didn't mean to..."

"Then leggo."

"Promise you won't start a fight."

"...Fine."

Ann took a careful sniff of the bacon, and decided it was still edible. _Bacon and eggs for breakfast, perhaps._

Kim issued another squeak before Shego spoke. "There, see how you like it."

"Um... without the claws, I think I'll just consider myself lucky."

A dissatisfied grunt. "You _did_ get more to grope."

"I didn't! Or, uh, I didn't mean to. I just... fell asleep hugging you."

"And why were you doing that?"

"You were... you fell asleep first, and you were having a bad dream, so I pulled you into a hug, and... we just sorta ended up like... this. I never saw anything, and I didn't mean to grope you, honest."

_The eggs haven't reached their sell by date, let alone their use by date, so they should be fine..._

A slight commotion, probably Shego extricating herself and securing her towel. "So you did it in your sleep," the villainess grumbled, though the anger in her tone seemed... off. "You a closet case, Kimmie?"

"What? No! I'm with Ron!"

"Does that mean he's a beard, or do you just have better taste in women?"

"What's that supposed to... wait, what do you mean, a beard?"

"A fake boyfriend so no one knows you prefer girls."

"No, he's not a fake boyfriend," Kim growled. "I love him."

"Oh yeah? How far have you two gone? Second base? Third?"

"I'd rather not hear the answer to that," Ann interjected quickly, just in case Kim didn't tell Shego to mind her own business. She turned to see Kim blushing furiously at the realisation that her mother had heard the entire exchange, and despite Shego's grimace, amusement sparked in her eyes. Perhaps she'd already noticed Ann's presence and had been needling Kim for all it was worth. "Good morning, girls. Power's back on. Breakfast?" Ann held up the bacon in one hand, the eggs in the other.

"Sure," the villainess responded first, "But I could use-"

"There's another bathrobe hanging on my bedroom door. You can use that until the boys are up, then raid my wardrobe in peace."

Kim shuffled around and out of the breakfast nook. "I'm gonna shower before they _are_ up," she said, hoping Shego wouldn't see fit to shoot off a parting wisecrack.

"Dibs on the first cup of coffee," was all the green girl said.

The teen hero took care of her morning ablutions before being rushed out of the bathroom by the tweebs. After a quick visit to her room, she returned to the kitchen in her mission outfit and tried not to laugh at Shego's scowl, no doubt brought on by the powder blue bathrobe she was wearing. Dad was there too, frying the bacon while Ann did the same with the eggs. As soon as the tweebs arrived, the villainess stalked off to change; when she returned, Kim couldn't hold back the amused snort.

"What?" Shego looked down at what she was wearing: a thigh-length polo neck sweater, green with a couple of yellow horizontal zigzag stripes going around it. "This was the only thing I could find that works for me."

"It's mom's winter wear," the teenager pointed out, "Isn't it a bit warm?" Her smirk faltered at the green girl's feral grin.

"Nah. The only thing I'm wearing underneath it are the matching high heels." Shego waited just long enough to observe Kim's blush before turning a dangerous glare at the twins. "And if I catch either of you trying to sneak a peek, breakfast won't be the only thing frying around here. Got it?" She held up a glowing hand to punctuate the threat.

The buys gulped and glanced in each other's direction. "Hickabickaboo?" One said in an uneasy voice. "Nuh-uh," the other replied emphatically.

Breakfast was eaten silently as the group learned the effects of the tsunami around the rest of the Pacific rim. Alaska had shielded part of the Russian coastline, but the island nations had been completely washed out. The Philippines and Papua New Guinea were the worst hit. Their neighbours and allies had aided their evacuation, but millions of casualties were assumed. Given the aquatic decimation of Japan, it was a sad truth to expect the extinction of the native cultures across the smaller islands.

Australians along the east coast had sufficient warning to flee far enough inland, so while the destruction was total from Cooktown to Mallacoota, casualty estimates were low and the country now boasted the largest number of native refugees.

Relief efforts were getting into full swing all around the Pacific. The loss of so many famous Hollywood philanthropists had prompted actors from around the rest of the globe to begin donating or raising money for survivors. It was the first sign of the global community coming together in the face of crisis and tragedy.

At home, blood was a more immediate priority across the westernmost states; but overnight statistics showed that donations across the whole country had risen sharply. There were no specifics concerning rescue efforts in California and its neighbouring states, but FEMA had concluded that, beyond a certain line someone had drawn on a map, there was simply no point in looking for survivors.

Shego was quick to counter Kim's acerbic response to the notion, which didn't go down well.

"Hey, I've been to disaster zones before," the teenager argued, "Including earthquakes. You'd be surprised what people can survive due to the whims of chance or fate. I've learned that people can survive even in the most unlikely circumstances."

"Maybe _you_ can," Shego responded with a snort, "But you've never seen _this_, Kimmie. Beyond a certain point, anyone that was on the ground at the time _will be dead_, and I'm not just talking about what fell into the ocean. Imagine a storm at sea, except the water's solid, drops out from under you so far and fast you literally start falling, only to slam back up and break every bone in your legs, then repeating the process a few dozen times more. Assuming it hasn't cracked open and swallowed you whole, or worse."

"There's still a chance-"

"This is too big, Kimmie! I saw it! They don't have the resources to go looking for the one in a _million_ that got lucky." She emphasized the million because she meant the ratio literally. "Right now they're guessing at casualties simply from population statistics. The estimates are only gonna go up, believe me."

James cleared his throat in the unconfortable silence that followed. "Well, the rest of the nation seems to have things in hand," he summed up, "So let's worry about what to do around here. The boys and I will decontaminate Shego's aircraft after breakfast. Then I'll head back to the space centre and talk the department heads into prioritizing the completion of the Kepler II. It may come in handy for global emergency relief efforts."

"You don't think a spacecraft is overkill?" Shego asked, more curious than interested.

"You never know," James insisted. "It's as fast as the original, so it can get whatever's needed where it's needed quickly. Granted, I always expected its trajectory to be more vertical than horizontal, but-"

"Yeah, whatever," the villainess interrupted before he could refer to her association to Motor Ed or what he had done to the original Kepler. "As long as you take care of my baby first."

"Your baby?" Kim repeated with a raised eyebrow. The green girl only frowned at her in response.

"The hospital already called," Ann chose to share before the girls began arguing again. "I'm afraid I'll be terribly busy for the next few days." She sounded exhausted just thinking about it.

"There's no school for the rest of the week," Kim informed everyone, "So I'll probably be going full mission mode until Monday."

"What about the boys?" Ann asked.

"...I'll take them to Uncle Slim's in the Sloth."

"No fair!" Jim complained.

"We want to help!" Tim added.

Kim leaned down and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Guys, you were great yesterday, but that was just snow. And Shego has a point. The mess out there is worse than anything you guys have been involved in before." She knew here parents would share her opinion that she didn't want the tweebs coming across anything... bloody.

The twins shared a look, then grumbled, "Fine," in stereo.

Shego abruptly stopped leaning against the counter and stalked out the back door.

"Is she alright?" Ann asked quietly.

"She had four brothers," Kim told her. "The youngest were twins." She turned to Jim and Tim. "They weren't much older than you, either. Keep a low profile, okay guys? Let dad talk to Shego when you're done with the jet." They nodded mutely, a gesture James repeated when his daughter's gaze turned to him.

The Possible family split up, Ann to take a shower before heading back to the hospital, the males to put on their radiation suits, and Kim to check on the villainess herself. Shego was in the middle of the back yard, her arms crossed under her breasts, staring at the mountains in the distance.

"Is it safe to hug you from behind?" Kim joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"What _is_ it with you and feeling me up, Possible?" Shego countered harshly.

The teenager didn't rise to the bait. "Like you said last night, I like to help people-"

"I just want my ride fixed so I can get back ho-" Shego's voice cracked and she cleared her throat, "To the lair," she finished with a growl.

"It's not just about what you want, Shego," Kim told her gently, stepping closer, "It's about what you need."

"And what do you think I need?" the villainess sneered.

"Comforting."

"If I needed it from you, I'd start pounding on you. That usually improves my mood."

_And before last night, I might have believed that,_ the heroine considered. "I can understand why a fight would make you feel better, but in your current emotional state, you might accidentally kill me."

"Accidentally?" the villainess repeated, turning just enough to hit Kim with a glare bordering on outrage.

"Come on, Shego. We both know you'd get bored with no one left to match you."

"Are you suggesting I _haven't_ been trying to kill you, these last few years?"

Kim stepped forward again, into the other girl's range. "I'm suggesting you haven't been trying as hard as you used to. Not to mention what happened the last time we met."

"I _told_ you I was off the clock."

"You didn't have to save me from Warmonga, either."

"Bragging rights," Shego quickly informed her, "No one gets to finish you off but me."

Kim raised a dubious eyebrow. "Well, I can see you're right on that." The green girl turned away again, muttering incomprehensibly to herself. Kim took it as the closest thing to encouragement she was ever likely to get. "Stop fighting me for just a minute and let me do this for you," she said, took the final step, slid her arms around Shego's waist, and squeezed. She wasn't quite tall enough to get her chin over the older girl's shoulder, so she pressed her cheek against the dark, voluminous hair and inhaled the familiar scent of her nemesis with a deep breath.

Pale hands eventually transferred from Shego's own arms to gently hold Kim's.

"Our parents died when the comet hit," the villainess eventually said. "I cr... I mourned. And I destroyed my room in the hospital in the process. Being soft, weak, meant being out of control. I haven't been that girl for a long time." Her voice turned hard. "So don't expect me to break down in your arms, Kimmie. If I did, I might incinerate you, whether I intend to or not."

"I'm not expecting you to, Shego. And believe it or not, I do understand."

"I doubt it," Shego growled.

"A freak event that should have killed you, kills your parents. Now a way more harsh event has left you even _more_ alone, just because you weren't there like..." _like you should be._ "Like you could've been. Both times, there's no one to blame but... happenstance. Nothing you can focus on. You can't pound on mother nature."

"Maybe with the Kepler..." She could feel Kimmie's quiet snort against her back as the teenager pressed against her, but the truth was she'd already seen what mother nature could do without any villainous help.

A nervous clearing of the throat came from behind them. Kim released Shego and they both turned to see Ron, looking confused and nervous. "Uh, morning."

Shego beat Kim to making a response. "Finally plucked up the nerve to come over, huh?"

"Well, I live right next door, and I figured, after seeing what happened last night, uh..."

"That you'd rather not help me wash the puke out of my hair?" Kim finished for him.

Ron shrugged in resignation. "Myeah, pretty much."

"And you're still dating this loser?" Shego asked the redhead, her tone bordering on sympathetic.

"Shego, uh..." the blond rubbed the back of his neck, "Were your brothers... home? Yesterday?"

"...Far as I know."

"Man, that's... I know you didn't get along, but..."

Shego waved him off. "Ugh, save it. I've been getting enough sympathy from miss priss already."

"You didn't seem to be complaining," Ron pointed out, but a glare from the villainess dissuaded him from further comment. Luckily, the kimmunicator interrupted at that moment.

"Kim," Wade began without preamble, "We just got a time-sensitive hit on the site, if... uh... is Shego with you?"

The teen hero nodded. "Don't worry about it, Wade. What's the sitch?"

"The nuclear center in Vallecitos. The main reactor was shut down in the sixties, but there's a smaller reactor for producing radioactive materials and conducting irradiation experiments. There are several faults running through the county, and they all shifted when the big one hit, so it's a real mess."

"And the reactor is in the middle of the mess," Kim said. "How bad is it?"

Wade didn't waste time running through numbers or statistics. "Compared to the main reactor, it's pretty small; it wasn't designed to supply power to an entire city, or anything. It won't put out as much radioactive material if it melts down-"

"Who says it hasn't already?" Shego cut in. "That might have been what I flew through last night."

"That's local, the result of damaged shielding," Wade answered as he tapped furiously at a keyboard. "If the core itself melts down... poisoning the land is the best case scenario. If radioactive material ends up in the atmosphere, the current wind would blow it east."

"Can the battlesuit handle radiation, Wade?" Kim asked.

"No way. Even if it was fully enclosing, the electronics aren't shielded against this level of radiation."

"Then we'll need radiation suits."

"I don't have time to... wait! The spacesuits your father designed protect against all kinds of radiation!"

"We'll swing by the space center before heading to Vallecitos," Kim decided.

"I'll contact you again when I've got more details," Wade told her before signing off.

The redhead turned to Ron. "Will your parents mind if-"

Her boyfriend was quick to cut her off. "No problemo, KP. I'll go grab my stuff. Gimme five minutes!" He was already rushing home as he spoke.

Instead of heading into the house to do the same, the teen hero raised an eyebrow at Shego "Are you coming?"

The question surprised and confused the villainess. "Huh? Why would I?"

"This is your chance to get back at what made you sick. Or would you rather hang around here all morning?"

Shego weighed her options. "Your momma's heading to work soon, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"...Fine, I'll come with."

Kim was so struck with surprise she had to catch up to the green girl on the way back inside. "What was... do you_ like _my mom?"

"I wouldn't go that far. But she's the least infuriating member of the Possible clan. Probably because she's smart without being a geek." She favoured her nemesis with a smirk. "Or did you mean _like_ like?"

The villainess couldn't help sniggering as she left the dumbfounded Kimmie behind once again.


	4. Chapter 4

Mr. Dr. Possible had added Kim to the space center's security systems after Motor Ed and Shego had stolen the original Kepler. Kim and Shego shared a half-hearted glare, silent consent not to mention that particular incident which had proven embarrassing for both of them, as they and Ron crossed the same control room in which the confrontation had occurred. The spacesuits were in a room on the far side.

The argument began as soon as they discovered there were only two suits.

"You really want to risk his buffoonery triggering the mushroom cloud, princess?" Shego huffed, a thumb jerking in Ron's direction as the boy took a closer look at the objects of the dispute. "Besides, I've got a score to settle with that cancer factory since _I'm_ the one it crapped up."

"Language! And Ron has always had my back when it mattered!"

"It's what people who work with radiation _call_ it, Possible!"

"Uh, guys?" Ron tried to interject.

His girlfriend ignored him. "That doesn't mean you have to call it that! And why do you even know that in the first place?"

"Cancer cells are _green_," the villainess snarled. "When the scientists came to check out the comet strike kids, what do you think their first thought was when they saw the green girl?"

Kim blinked, realising that Shego's issues on the subject were much more than a day old. "Well, how was I supposed to know? It's not like you've ever shared your past much, even when we were helping your brothers."

"My past is none of your business anyway, Possible. Whatever Hego told you-"

"The more you fought evil, the more you liked it?"

"Hah!"

The redhead's frown deepened. "Seems pretty accurate to me."

Ron sighed, holding up a suit by the collar in each hand and waving them slightly. "Guys..."

"Consider the source, princess. You spent enough time with Hego before coming to get me, you know how skewed his world view was!"

"Better his skewed world than yours!"

"_I_ see the world for what it is! Not what anyone else thinks it _should_ be!"

"Oh come on!" Ron yelled suddenly, eyes shut and face raised to the ceiling in frustration. "Can we _not_ do the thing where you ignore me until you both yell at me in stereo?"

It took the intake of his next breath to realise he had said it aloud, and half-cringed while opening a wary eye. The girls were both frowning at him, but otherwise... he straightened up and cleared his throat. "Kim," the blond raised one of the suits he was holding by the collar. "This is the smaller one, and it's still too big for you. So there's no point arguing; I'll have to wear it, which means Shego gets the other one."

"I'm going in with the sidekick?" the villainess complained. "A sidekick who's only power is dumb freaking luck?"

"Don't diss the Ron factor! Besides, that's not my only power..." Ron said before his brain caught up with his big mouth and pointed out that he probably shouldn't bring up mystical monkey power around the only bad guy - girl - he knew who could outfight Monkey Fist.

"Spare me your positive thinking," Shego said with a dismissive wave, surprising both teens with her memory of their brief collaboration to return Team Go's powers. "And randomly losing your pants isn't a power, either. Unless..." Shego cocked an eyebrow at Kim.

"What?" The redhead asked, oblivious.

"Myeah, not a skill. You two hooking up makes no sense to me." Shego snatched the larger spacesuit from Ron, causing him to flinch dramatically. "Turn around and close your eyes, cuz I'm not wearing the sweater under this thing." She was already stepping out of the high heels as the boy's eyes widened at the implication, then quickly did as ordered before he suffered any punishment for being too slow.

Kim blinked as the green girl moved to drape the spacesuit over the nearest chair. "What about me?" she asked, her frustration with Shego suddenly twisting into nervousness.

"What _about_ you? You do the locker room thing on a regular basis, with your stupid group acrobatics in short skirts, so it's nothing you haven't seen before. Besides, you seemed to like my body just fine this morning."

Ron's ears pricked up at that - an automatic reaction due to the context - before deciding he should probably busy himself with getting into his own spacesuit before he did anything he would regret. He fished a sleepy Rufus out of the usual pocket before starting to undress.

The cheerleader quickly averted her eyes as her mother's sweater came off the green woman, and tried not to stammer her response. "I told you that was an accident... Shego, if we're not fighting each other today, let's not argue. Can't you just, I dunno, drop the snark? Just for today? For..."

"For what? My brothers? They're _dead_, princess. They don't give a damn."

Kim frowned at that; she should have known her nemesis had such a bleak view of death. "What, then? After today, you go back to Drakken and it's business as usual?"

"Dr. D is too much of a sap to try and take over the world right now," Shego grumbled, idly wondering if anyone else was coming up with plans that might require an independent contractor.

"...You really don't care that millions of people just died, do you."

"I like the chaos, but otherwise I don't give a damn one way or another. It's usually only mother nature that can rack up such a high body count in so short a time, though. And you were right, what you said earlier, there's no one to blame. It was going to happen eventually. This isn't man-made, like a nuke, or..."

"Little diablos?" Kim finished for her in an angry tone.

Now in the spacesuit (save the helmet), Shego turned to the redhead with a sour smirk on her lips. "Careful there, Kimmie. Sounds like you're about to start arguing again." Glancing over to see the sidekick still struggling to get his scrawny backside into his suit, she added, "I'll wait for you in the car."

"It's locked."

"_At_ the car, then, whatever." The villainess stalked off without further comment, helmet under one arm. Kim considered following, her instincts telling her not to let the woman out of her sight - or anywhere near the Sloth unsupervised - but instead simply picked up her mother's discarded sweater and shoes.

Waiting silently for Ron to finish getting into his spacesuit, Kim considered Shego's opinion of her relationship with the boy. None of their usual villains seemed to take the fact that they were dating seriously, along with Bonnie and a few other members of their senior class. As for Shego herself, things had never been the same since the diablo fiasco. Colder. Tricking Warmonga into leaving Earth was the only time the villainess had used one of the old nicknames, and it had not been until then that Kim realised she had actually missed them.

Of course, recent events had turned everything upside-down. Shego had been sick and greiving, and now she was apparently trying to make up for her softer behaviour. It was... disappointing, the redhead decided.

"Whadaya think, Rufus?" Ron asked as he twisted and turned, giving the naked mole rat a full view of the suit he had just finished cinching up. The rodent scrutinized everything before offering a thumbs-up gesture and a toothy grin. His owner picked up the helmet and held it upside-down for his pet to jump into. "So what's so special about these suits, anyway?" he asked Kim as they headed back the way they had come.

Kim shrugged. "Wade can brief us on the way."

* * *

><p>What they had all thought were oxygen tanks turned out to be folding hydrazine-propelled jetpacks, according to the teen genius. The oxygen supply was threaded throughout the suit, which included tech from the Centurion Project. Any punctures or ruptures would be sealed almost immediately, minimizing atmosphere and pressure loss.<p>

"Same stuff as your supersuit, then," Shego supposed, eyeing the skintight outfit with pointless glowing blue stripes that the teen hero had been planning to wear under the spacesuit.

"Battlesuit," Kim corrected, "Though it's useful in sitches other than fighting you."

"But fighting me is what it was made for, wasn't it, nerdlinger?" the villainess asked the screen in the dashboard.

Wade gulped convulsively before hazarding a diplomatic answer. "Just trying to level the playing field, Shego. You've had an unfair advantage for years."

"And Kimmie survived regardless. Seemed pretty balanced to me, before you forced me to up my game."

"Aw, what's the matter, Sheegs?" Kim teased. "Afraid you'll have to put more effort into getting your biscuit whipped?"

"Biscuit?" the green girl repeated with a mocking smirk. "Just how long have you had this 'eating Shego's ass' fantasy?"

"What? No! I've been calling it that since way before I even met you!"

"It's true," Ron confirmed from the back seat.

"Shut it, doofus. You know you'd watch if we let you."

Kim glanced in the rear view mirror when her boyfriend failed to refute Shego's statement, and saw him nervously rubbing the back of his neck as he looked out a window. "Ron!"

The hormonally-overcharged teenager didn't sound as apologetic as he could have. "Sorry KP, but watching two gorgeous girls do the dirty would be totally hot."

Shego rolled her eyes, ignoring the part of her that appreciated the compliment. "My point is, didn't you ever notice me dialling back the glow, the more we fought?"

Kim thought about it for a long, quiet moment. "I guess," she finally conceded, "And there were times you didn't light up right away, like in the early days."

"Exactly. You're the only enemy worth my time, cupcake. I've said it before and I'll say it again, no one gets to destroy you but me. Not Drakken or Dementor, not Motor Ed or Monkey Fist, and certainly not some she-thing from outer space. _Me_."

"That sounds a little... obsessive," Wade opined, being the only one safe from immediate harm for voicing what everyone else was thinking.

"Yeah, well, Miss Priss is the only decent competition I've had in years."

Kim couldn't stop the grin spreading across her face. "I guess that's true... so I was right, it's the only reason you've never gotten around to finishing me off."

Admitting the do-gooder was right twice in one day was beyond Shego, so she changed the subject. "How about you tell us what's up with where we're going, nerdlinger."

Wade blinked at her abruptness, then shrugged and started calling up plans of the nuclear power station. The rest of the flight was spent comparing that with the latest satellite imagery and going through the most probable scenarios resulting from the earthquake. Kim kept an ear open as she focused on her flying, letting Shego take charge of the discussion.

"Sounds like the best bet is to tunnel straight down next to where the reactor is now," the villainess eventually decided, "And take it from there."

"Can you do that?" Kim asked. "I mean, your glow won't cause any wierd reactions with the radiation in there?"

"It hasn't yet."

"You'd better be careful in any case," Wade warned. "Remember, this place was being used for medical research, not power, and I haven't found any info on what they were actually doing there. Kim, you'll be landing where the company set up their emergency outpost; Ron and Shego can fly in from there."

"Just keep the buffoonery to a minimum, sidekick," Shego huffed.

Kim had to land on the flattest stretch of available ground, since there wasn't an intact length of asphalt remaining to act as a landing strip. The outpost was little more than a large tent full of technical equipment, populated by men in lab coats and suits. Ron was ready to go before Shego, who had to tuck all her hair in before she could lock her helmet into place; Kim helped, without comment from either of them. Ron took the opportunity to test the jetpack, managing to hover for a few seconds before dropping again. The controls were twitchier than he was used to, but there was enough force for flight in Earth's gravity.

Once the villainess had her helmet secured, Kim was forced to watch as her boyfriend and archfoe took off in the direction of the ruined station. Once they were out of sight, she headed over to the tent as Wade set up communications between the four of them.

"I'm recognising a few surface features," Shego was saying, "But you better let me know when we're directly over the target site."

"You're not far now," the young genius replied. "Head right fifteen degrees and continue on for about a hundred feet." He watched the pair of blips on his screen and was impressed by how accurately Shego altered course. "Okay, almost there. Get ready to hover when I give the word, and then we'll fine-tune your position.

It only took another minute for Shego and Ron to touch down on the bullseye, the former checking the display on her sleeve while the latter looked at the rubble around them. The suit was registering the increased radiation, but it hadn't raised any alarms yet.

The boy's voice was subdued when he asked, "I suppose it's like this up and down the state, huh."

Shego nodded. "Or worse. And this is just one little reactor. Think about all those active power stations that fell into the ocean with the old coast."

"Oh, man," Ron grimaced. "How bad d'ya think it is?"

"With the tsunami... hell if I know."

"Guys," Kim's voice interrupted, "Judging by how the building has sunk, the engineers here aren't sure if the reactor is where it should be in relation to what we can see from the surface."

"So if we drill straight down, we might end up right on top of it?" her boyfriend clarified.

"Exactly."

"Evil's easier," Shego muttered, before continuing in a clear voice. "They got any seismic doohickies in the ground?"

"Around the perimeter of the contaminated zone, yeah," Kim answered after a moment of half-heard conversation.

"All plugged into a single machine?"

"...Yeah."

"Then hook your watch up to it, so your nerd and I can paint a picture of what's down there."

"I get it," Wade said enthusiastically, already typing up a frenzy. "You hop around sending weak concussive blasts through the rubble and I can render a 3D image of the results."

"Woah, wait!" Ron cried as Shego knelt and placed both palms flat against the broken slab of concrete she was standing on. "Won't that make things worse?"

The villainess shrugged as the glow flared to life around her hands. "Maybe. You ready, genius?"

"Almost... okay, give it a try."

"Keep an eye on the radiation levels, sidekick," Shego said before focusing on what was underneath her and letting off the lightest, widest blast she was capable of into the rubble. The concussive force was enough to make the smallest stones shift, but otherwise there was no further effect. After a moment, Ron relaxed with an audible sigh of relief.

"It's packed pretty solid from what I can see," Wade informed everyone. "Think you can go deeper?"

Shego sent a stronger, more directed pulse through the debris, cracking the slab and causing the ground to shudder in a manner more akin to an aftershock than a collapsing wall.

"Conical. Nice... it looks like the reactor isn't anywhere beneath you for at least twenty feet. It's definitely not where they expected it to be."

"Grid search?" Kim suggested.

"Yeah," Shego agreed, counting her steps as she walked forward before kneeling back down and sending another pulse through the ruin, then working in a clockwise direction around the starting point that Ron was now standing on. Nine points later, the green girl had come full square with no result and was forced to expand the search, but it took only three more pulses for the scientists and engineers to recognise enough of the facility to make an educated guess.

"Okay," Wade eventually said, "Everyone's agreed that you're standing on the right spot now. Straight down."

The villainess only grunted in response as she punched through the solid chunk of rubble in front of her, blasting pieces in all directions. Dismissing her power, she relied on her unnatural strength to pick up and throw the larger pieces of debris while the boy came over to help with the smaller pieces.

As Ron worked, he was increasingly getting the impressions that he was quite useless for this part of the mission compared to Shego, but at least she wasn't griping at him about it. He thought back to his fight with the Yamanouchi ninja that had chosen to serve Monkey Fist and the brief flow of power he had experienced that quickly finished the confrontation.

Perhaps it was dangerous, but if the reactor was as far down as they had said... that mystical monkey powered foot stomp had travelled along the surface and cracked an overhanging array of hanging icicles, resulting in an unconventional prison for the wayward ninja. Deciding to give it a go, he did his best monkey impression before slamming a boot onto the debris.

Nothing happened.

"What the heck are you doing, sidekick?" Shego asked, as she paused to scrutinize the blond.

"Oh, nothing," Ron sighed, "Just trying to get all monkey kung fu on this rubble."

"That's based on chopping wood with your bare hands, not cracking stone with your feet."

"Really?"

"...Ugh. For a moment, I had a glimmer of hope for you." The villainess went back to work, leaving Ron to ponder her comment.

"How about I just get back to the smaller bits while you deal with the big stuff."

"If you can handle it," Shego muttered. All his panicked running around lairs in the last few years may have given him decent legs, but his arms still looked like noodles. "Don't forget to lift with your back, monkey boy, or you might sprain something important. Kim would have to live without your 'tender ministrations' for a while."

To her surprise, Ron did not respond to the sneer she put into the metaphor, clamping his jaw shut and getting to work.

Not far away, Kim was blushing as she sat in the Sloth with one leg out of the open door, watching their progress on the dashboard monitor which displayed a live satellite feed. Her boyfriend's silence made her think twice about berating the antagonistic woman; in fact, the more she thought about Shego, the more she wanted to talk to her privately. After a moment, she realised there was a way to do that right now. She tapped out a message on her wrist kimmunicator, watched Wade's eyebrows rise as he read the request, but he fulfilled it without question.

"Shego, this is a private channel. Just the two of us."

"Why?" the villainess grunted.

"I want to talk... clear a few things up, maybe."

On screen, the image of Shego let off another blast of green energy into the fledgling shaft, causing Ron to yelp and cower. "I'm kinda busy."

"You can multitask."

"...Fine."

The teenager struggled to begin. "Things haven't been the same between us since your last stint in prison."

"Very observant."

"Bueno Nacho... the roof... I'm sorry for what I said. What I did. I mean, we both... but I don't expect an apology from you, or anything..." A sigh. "My point is, we've never really hurt each other like that before, have we?"

"Guess not," the green girl admitted, wondering if Kim was referring to what had been said, or what had been done. The kick to the chest and the electrocution had been pretty bad, and she'd never walked away from a fight with the girl as bloody as she had after the transmission tower had collapsed; but in retrospect, the hate was worse. "You got your first taste of being evil that night," Shego eventually added.

"I didn't realise how wrong it was until I really thought about it," Kim told her. "We'd gone to the prom, then home to bed... Ron called in the middle of the night after dreaming that I was a synthodrone... and I couldn't get back to sleep, after. Everything kinda caught up with me. In that moment, I really did hate you - you and Drakken had gotten ferociously personal, and I _would_ have given up if not for Ron - but I didn't have to kick you into that tower to stop you, just..."

"Fight," Shego finished, "For my freedom. That's what I was expecting, but you..."

Kim swallowed. "I'd finally beaten you, completely, totally and utterly. But it was revenge, not justice. And maybe what bothers you most is that I went right back to being a goody two-shoes after that night - maybe like it bugs me that you didn't stay down after all, in the long run - but for whatever it's worth, I'm sorry Shego. Even if we go back to being enemies after this... I just... I wish it could be how it was before."

Shego huffed, and the redhead could hear the slab of concrete land wherever the superpowered woman had thrown it; but if Shego had a response in mind, it was interrupted by a sudden, steady beeping. "What's that?" Kim asked.

The villainess checked the readout on her forearm, confirming her suspicion. "Radiation spike. We're close."


End file.
